On the 21st of May the BBC posted an article titled ''Global antibiotics 'revolution' needed'' to address the need for a drastic improvement in our habits for antibiotics use. The 21st of May issue of the Economist featured an article that concerns the rise of the antibiotics resistance.
These articles are an excellent reminder to all of us of the lurking problem of antibiotics resistance, a problem with potentially catastrophic results. Antibiotic resistance is an ever-existing problem that researchers have been fighting from the very first use of antibiotics.
The reason for the problem is simple: Bacteria constantly evolves.
Antibiotics acts as a selection pressure to the bacteria, as a result, wipes out bacteria with insufficient resistance to the antibiotics while bacteria with sufficient resistance to the antibiotics continue to thrive, replace the population and create a new population with resistance to antibiotics. A detailed explanation of the mechanism can be easily found online for example on wikipedia, or within the economist article as mentioned above. A example of the problem of antibiotics resistance is with the case of a difficult-to-treat strain of ''super-gonorrhea''.
Research is constantly conducted to address the issue of antibiotic resistance with the creation of new antibiotics or alternative measures. However, on our side (as a normal citizen), we can help combat the problem of antibiotic resistance by using antibiotics appropriately. Poor usage of antibiotics will work in favour of bacteria as it acts as a catalyse for antibiotics resistance. The BBC reports that in the ''Review on Antimicrobial Resistance'', by 2050, 10 million people could die each year as a result of antibiotics resistance.
Therefore, proper use has the potential to save millions of lives.
1. One must understand that antibiotics have no use on virus infections.
When one falls sick, make an effort to understand the nature of the ailment. A infection in the respiratory tract or the intestine that causes diarrhoea? That could possibly be an influenza virus infection in which antibiotics does not have an effect on. While most of the time our doctors are able to diagnose and prescribe for our ailments accurately, if one were to purchase medication over the counter, be sure as to buy antibiotics only when it is applicable and required.
2. One must finish the entire course of antibiotics medication. Unless otherwise stated by a medical practitioner.
Often times our doctors will instruct us to finish our entire course of antibiotics medication even if we appear to have recovered from our illnesses. The reason for this is that our apparent ''recovery'' from the illness may not be entirely complete, while what we observe is instead the recovery from the obvious symptoms of the illness. Traces of the bacteria may still survive within your body which may develop a resistance to the antibiotics if effort is not taken to completely flush out the bacteria within your body.
Sources
1. BBC Article, ''Global antibiotics 'revolution' needed'': http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36321394
2. Super-Gonorrhea: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/17/
3. More About Antimicrobial Resistance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_resistance
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